The Trouble with Chickens audiobook

The genius of Doreen Cronin is her ability to write a book for kids with a layer of humor that also appeals to adults. In this case, J.J. Tully operates like a detective in a Raymond Chandler novel (G-rated, of course). I listened to this on audio and there were many times I had to laugh out loud over puns and observations that Tully makes. Would make a fabulous selection for a family road trip. Hank the Cowdog lovers will love J.J. Tully, too. Highly recommended.

Just as Click Clack Moo (as brilliant as I find that book) raised questions about how many young readers would be familiar with typewriters, so this novel raises the question with regard to detective fiction (a question it shares with the Chet Gecko series). I don't necessarily have a problem with parodying adult genres in children's lit, but it seems like you'd want to pick a genre kids are likely to be familiar with through TV or movies. Nevertheless, I don't have that problem - I've read Raymond Chandler - and I thought this book was hilarious. It's probably quite funny to kids who don't know a thing about detectives as well, and it certainly has more than enough adventure, and a great twist, so in the end it probably doesn't much matter.

A hard-boiled detective novel for young middle-grade readers--funny, if a bit of a one-trick pony. I'm pretty sure I would have liked this a lot when I was a kid (if I had deigned to read it, which I wouldn't have--animals, you know). Curious to get some kid perspectives on it. I saw this mentioned in early Newbery discussion; sure, why not?

This was a cute mystery for kids! I really liked the perspective of J.J. a retired search and rescue dog.

The Trouble with Chickens is a chapter book by Doreen Cronin, who is the author of a bunch of hilarious picture books, including Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. In this, her first longer book for kids, she introduces us to J.J. Tully, a retired search-and-rescue dog, who despite his suspicion of chickens, is roped into helping Millicent, whom he calls Moosh, find her lost baby chicks. The story is told in the first person, mainly from J.J.'s point of view, and includes lots of humor, interesting vocabulary, and several surprise plot twists.I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. Not only was it laugh out loud funny, with clever turns of phrase and well-timed punchlines, it was also just really well-written. The first sentence alone is fantastic: "It was a hot, sunny day when I met that crazy chicken." But that is just the beginning of the wonderful ways Cronin plays with language throughout the text. J.J.'s voice is absolutely perfect for his character. His deadpan tone and wry sense of humor really create the atmosphere of the story and wonderfully develop his character as a dog with a dangerous past, who has seen it all. Cronin also creates these great rules and concepts that define how animals behave and interact with one another. J.J. notes the differences between indoor and outdoor words, for example. He also calculates time according to species. An hour in dog time is seven hours in people time, "[w]hich translates into forty-three hours in chicken time." There is a human in the story - Barb is the owner of J.J., the chickens, and Vince, the rival dog who lives in the house - but the drama of the book belongs solely to the animals and especially to the duplicity of the chickens.I think it's really difficult to write a story for early readers that is both easy enough to read and interesting enough to attract readers. Cronin has managed not only to entertain me with this story, but also to produce a really sophisticated book that shifts between points of view, tricks the reader with red herrings, and comes together in a clever surprise ending. I do think some of those sophisticated aspects make it a book for kids on the older end of the early chapter book audience - eight and nine year olds, most likely - but it's a definite standout of the genre for this year, and one of my favorite 2011 reads.

I received an Advance Reader's Copy of The Trouble With Chickens by Doreen Cronin through Librarything's Early Review program. I was not compensated for my review.I was both excited and wary about reading this book. I love Doreen Cronin's picture books: Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type and Diary of a Worm are two of my favorites. Yet, I wasn't sure how her creative picture book style would translate to chapter book format.She handles the transition beautifully. This is a book that will have appeal to a number of audiences. Children will find the story silly (especially if read aloud with great expression) and while some of the humor will slip past the kids, the adults will chuckle at the innuendo - making this a great family read.At times, while reading this book I was reminded of Hank the Cow Dog by John Erickson, though I must admit I like J. J. far more than I do Hank.Students getting reading to make the move from reading picture books to chapter books will recognize Cronin's name and will be eager to give this story a try. While School Library Journal levels this a 2nd Grade - 4th Grade read, I would recommend it as a read alone for 4th grade and up (they are more likely to get more of the humor) and a read aloud for students in 1st Grade and up.The Trouble With Chickens is a great addition to any school, classroom or home library.Mrs. Archer's rating: 4.5 of 5!

Doreen Cronin, author of Diary of a Spider, breaks into chapter books with the fast-paced, funny The Trouble with Chickens. J. J. Tully is a retired search-and-rescue dog now living out in the country with his trainer who finds retirement less than restful when a chicken named Millicent drags him into a case. Two of her chicks are missing, and Millicent is insistent J.J. find them even if the mother chicken doesn't have a clue what a dog charges for work (A hint is that chicken feed won't buy a canine).J.J.'s point of view hints at gritty noir. He gives the chickens nicknames that are less than stellar (Moosh, Sugar and Dirt) while tracking down scents. Rain fouls up the investigation for a time until a note from the kidnapper arrives.This is a fun, light-hearted problem solving where some problem solving turns the villain's game backwards. Kevin Cornell's illustrations are a great complement to the story. A few parts of the book are told by house dog Vince the Funnel, which shows the case is more complicated than J.J. imagines.Of the chickens, Sugar has the most personality. She's willing to rush into things, is smart, and has a few secrets up her wing. Millicent aka Moosh also has a fairly strong personality. For me, it is Sugar and J.J. who really make this story click.I'm curious to see what will happen in the next J. J. book.

J.J. is a retired search-and-rescue dog that now spends his days lazing about on the farm with his trainer, Barb.  This is far from his idea of a perfect life, and he finds himself frustrated and bored more often than not.Enter Moosh, a mama chicken with a mystery to solve, and her two feisty chicks -- all birds that won't take no for an answer.  What follows is a fast-paced whodunnit style mystery complete with an intriguingly named villain (Vince the Funnel) bent on causing problems for everyone.  But don't be lured into the simplicity of the storytelling -- as in all good mysteries, you can't take everything you see at face value. Cronin has masterfully spun a tale that succeeds in the slight of hand magic necessary to create a memorable detective story.This delightful early chapter book is packed with action, offers some interesting vocabulary for young children, and is told in a wonderfully unique voice. J.J.’s gruff, no-nonsense personality gives the story just the right touch of old school detective agency flair that it needs.  Short and engaging enough to entice even your most disinterested readers and an excellent choice in the classroom to teach voice, sentence structure, and dialogue.

Jonathan Joseph Tully, a retired Search and Rescue dog, is hired by worried mother Millicent to find her two missing chicks, Poppy and Sweetie – but this SAR mission is not as simple as it seems. The Trouble with Chickens is the kind of book that will make you stop and read aloud hilarious sentences to anyone nearby. Cronin has taken a very simple missing-child mystery and turned it into something much denser. Younger readers may not fully appreciate all the humor of J.J.’s detective style, but will certainly find themselves immersed in the mystery from the first page.My only issue with the book was the change in narrator, indicated only by the shape beneath the chapter number – this will be easy for young readers to miss, and they may become confused.

Move over Sam Spade! Make way for Jonathan Joseph Tully (J.J. for short), retired search-and-rescue dog. J.J.'s reputation as a problem-solver sends Moosh, a chicken with a big problem, his way. Try as he may, he can't get rid of the determined mother hen, so they come to an agreement. He won't work for children feed, but he will work for a cheeseburger. Moosh has a missing chick, and J.J. sets out to find it, running "afowl" of a scheming dachshund along the way.Young readers won't find a single bad egg in this hard-boiled mystery with just enough scrambled clues to keep them guessing, while the allusions to the mystery genre will delight older readers who are "in on the yolk."

"Illustrations large and small are generously sprinkled throughout and serve to emphasize the humorous content. Kevin Cornell does a great job painting J.J. every shade of cranky, from mildly irritated to full-on furious, and the chickens and chicks are likewise expressive. I think it's the villain of this book, the demented Vince the Funnel (what a great name!) that I like the best, though. Glowering from the depths of his veterinary lampshade, Vince is thrillingly evil and ludicrous at the same time."Full review on Pink Me

I imagine it's tricky to write a film-noir-esque mystery that's also an early chapter book...balancing the elements of the genre while also making the story accessible to young readers...somehow, Doreen Cronin pulls it off. Her theme of independent barnyard animals also continues. There were times when the banter/humor and the red herrings went over the heads of the 3rd graders in my comprehension group. That didn't stop them from enjoying the story! It was obviously a good text for drawing inferences, and overall I liked the growth of the main characters.

As a read-alone, I'd give this 3 stars, because though the storyline is enjoyable, it's not strong, and my 8 year old was bored of it after the first few chapters on her own. However, as a read-aloud, the "voice" is so fun and packed with a cowboy-poetry-Hank-The-Cowdog-I'll-leave-the-light-on kind of presence, that vocalized, my girls were giggling and begging for more, which encouraged me to read later than bedtime and finish up in the morning during breakfast.

This is a funny story. I bought it to read aloud to my 7 year old son but after I read the first chapter he liked it so much he wanted to go ahead and read some more on his own instead of waiting for me. He ended up finishing it in a couple of days. I read it too because I thought it was cute and I wanted to be able to talk to him about it. The chapters are short and the story moves at a pace that keeps you interested. My son is excited to read the sequel.

My son is planning to do the Battle of the Books this year and I am reading the books on the list with him. This was our first read and I quite enjoyed it. It is a very easy-to-read book, but the plot did have some complexity and twists. The book also has different POVs without explicitly stating so, exposing kids to this technique and also making them think. Fun and easy read!

A canine Philip Marlowe for the early grade set. Wonderfully written and quite humorous barnyard adventure featuring the aforementioned hero and a curious family of chickens. Fans of Cronin's picture books and fans of mysteries should be on the look out for this short early chapter book.